It is difficult for a proud man ever to forgive a person who has found him at fault, and who has good grounds for complaining of him; his pride is not assuaged till he has regained the advantages he lost and put the other person in the wrong. Jean de la Bruyere More Quotes by Jean de la Bruyere More Quotes From Jean de la Bruyere The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long. Jean de la Bruyere disappear fool long We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice. Jean de la Bruyere envy unjust men I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice; like abysses where many a man's money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return; like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish. Jean de la Bruyere gambling rocks men A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind. Jean de la Bruyere life-and-death comfort long Nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a large one. Jean de la Bruyere wealth fortune Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed. Jean de la Bruyere passion fashion people Logic is the art of making truth prevail. Jean de la Bruyere logic philosophy art You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed. Jean de la Bruyere kings views dog As a man falls out of favour and his wealth declines, we discover for the first time the ridiculous aspects of his character, which were always there but which wealth and favour had concealed. Jean de la Bruyere riches favors men There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly and speaking seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable; this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally arises in them betwixt their condition and yours is excruciating. Jean de la Bruyere speaking-well offending land The sublime only paints the true, and that too in noble objects; it paints it in all its phases, its cause and its effect; it is the most worthy expression or image of this truth. Ordinary minds cannot find out the exact expression, and use synonymes. Jean de la Bruyere sublime expression mind I call worldly or earthly those whose minds and hearts are fixed on a tiny portion of this world they live in, which is our earth; who respect and love nothing beyond it: people as limited as what they call their property or their estate, which can be measured, whose acres can be counted, whose boundaries can be shown. Jean de la Bruyere mind heart men If a handsome woman allows that another woman is beautiful, we may safely conclude she excels her. Jean de la Bruyere women may beautiful There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude. Jean de la Bruyere excess gratitude world There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled. Jean de la Bruyere power advice men Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more. Jean de la Bruyere men years thinking Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests. Jean de la Bruyere passion overcoming men The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned. Jean de la Bruyere innocent-person criminals men They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm; they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination. Jean de la Bruyere prejudice imagination thinking Nothing makes us better understand what trifling things Providence thinks He bestows on men in granting them wealth, money, dignities, and other advantages, than the manner in which they are distributed and the kind of men who have the largest share. Jean de la Bruyere dignity men thinking
